If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

^^Our stadio not Bilan's hate how Bilan fans claim that its theirs its named after a frikin Inter player. According to my late grandfather he was one of the best he has seen. He passed in 2000 so he had seen a lot.

It's a bit late, but here in Norway there's still some 48 minutes left until 24 August. Meazza would've been 96 year old today.

It's a bit weird that so little is written (or even known?) about Inter's all-time top scorer.

"It will be born here, at the "Orologio (Watch)" restaurant, meeting place of artists and it will be always a team of great talent. On this splendid night it's colours will be given: The black and the blue with a golden background of the stars. It will be called Internazionale, because we are brothers of the world."

A superstar of the game before it entered the age of celebrity, two-time World Cup-winner Giuseppe Meazza is perhaps the defining talent of the pre-war era and is widely held to be the most complete inside-forward of the time.

Born in 1910, Meazza had supreme technical ability but he was far from a model professional. With slicked-back hair and flashy pinstripe suits, he was an incorrigible womaniser and a big gambler, a smoker who liked a drink.

On the pitch, he was just as flamboyant, with a particular taste for humiliating his opponents. His close control and dribbling ability were such that he would leave opponents scrabbling in his wake, a sudden burst of pace frequently leaving defenders prostrate. For goalkeepers, he inspired even greater fear: he famously liked to take the ball towards the goal, draw the 'keeper off his line and then take it around him before slotting into the net.

His talent was clear from a very young age, although he was rejected by AC Milan in his early teens for a lack of physical strength. Inter Milan swooped in, building up his physique, and he broke into the senior team in 1927 at just 17 years old. That early breakthrough was something of a shock at the time, earning him the nickname Il Balilla - 'the little boy' - from an older team-mate, Leopoldi Conti. The nickname was barbed, with Conti said to have remarked: "Now we even take players from kindergarten!"

It did not take Meazza long to justify his inclusion. He scored twice on his debut and, in the 1929-30 season, at the age of 19, he scored a then-record 33 goals for his team. The legendary Italy manager Vittorio Pozzo was quick to recognise his abilities, and Meazza made his international debut in February 1930, scoring two goals in a 4-2 win over Switzerland.

Although Italy did not enter the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay, Meazza helped them to success in the Central European International Cup that year, and was firmly established in the team's frontline by the time of the 1934 tournament.

There was great pressure on Italy on their World Cup debut. Playing in their homeland, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini made clear he would not accept anything less than success, warning the head of the Italian federation of the cost of failure. With Meazza at the heart of the side, now moved from a central position to inside forward, they fulfilled their brief.

The Italians breezed past USA 7-1 in their opener, with Meazza getting the final goal, but their next match, the quarter-final with Spain, proved much more difficult. Meazza looked to have met his match against the great Spanish goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora, whose spectacular performance ensured a replay as the match finished 1-1.

Italy, despite the presence of flair players like Meazza and Raimundo Orsi, were a very physical side with Luis Monti a famously ruthless player. Zamora was unable to feature in the replay through injury, and Meazza took advantage, heading the only goal of the game to send Italy through to the semi-finals.

Meazza featured again in the semi-finals against the pre-tournament favourites - the Austrian Wunderteam - and, despite playing on a muddy pitch that made life difficult for the more skilful players, he was heavily involved in the only goal of the game as they booked their place in the final against Czechoslovakia.

Meazza carried an injury into the match, but Italy came back from behind to force a 2-1 win in extra time, with goals from Orsi and Angelo Schiavio. Meazza did little to enhance his image in the game, punching Rudolf Krcil in retaliation for a foul, but he stayed on the field and took the bulk of the plaudits after the tournament, winning the Golden Ball. Zamora, his quarter-final rival, finished runner-up.

Italy continued to dominate the world stage with victory in the Olympics in 1936 but, by the time of the 1938 World Cup in France, only Meazza and Giovanni 'Gioanin' Ferrari - as well as Pozzo, the coach - remained of the 1934-winning side. Meazza, the captain, remained central to their ambitions.

He scored just once in 1938, while the Brazil striker Leonidas was the star of the tournament, but Meazza's effort in the semi-final against the Brazilians proved to be the decider in a 2-1 win. The goal itself, a 60th-minute penalty, provided one of the most famous events of the tournament: the elastic in his shorts broke during the run-up, and he was forced to hold them up with one hand as he stepped up.

In the final against Hungary, Meazza again failed to score, but his was the defining performance. He provided the assist for Silvio Piola's opener and then again when Gino Colaussi put Italy 2-1 up. On 35 minutes, he supplied Colaussi once more for 3-1, and Italy eventually ran out 4-2 winners.

That final will be forever tainted by the unsavoury intrusion of politics, however. Mussolini's influence had been strongly evident throughout the tournament and, after the match, Hungary goalkeeper Antal Szabo said, "I may have let in four goals, but at least I saved the lives of 11 men". The dictator had sent the players his famous 'Win or die!' telegram prior to the game, and the players had been used as propaganda machines throughout. Meazza performed a straight-arm salute upon being presented with the trophy.

Nonetheless, he is remembered fondly. The advent of World War II brought a premature end to his World Cup career but he continued to play at a high level domestically. In 1940, he ended a 13-year association with Inter to join arch-rivals AC Milan, where he again established himself as a hero among the fans.

His popular status among both clubs was such that, a year after his death at the age of 68, Milan's San Siro was officially renamed Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. He is third in the all-time Serie A goals list with 216 in 367 appearances, and was at the time of his retirement Italy's leading goal-scorer with 33 in 53 games.

Incredibly, Italy lost only seven games in the '30s under Vittorio Pozzo. Many would point to the physical approach of the players and willingness of referees to overlook their discretions - allied, no doubt, to the pressure applied by Mussolini. Another factor was the inclusion of former Argentina internationals like Orsi and Monti. Yet, for Pozzo, it seems Meazza was the central factor: "He was a born forward. He saw the game, understood the situation, distributed the ball carefully and made the team operate in attack. Having him on the team was like starting the game 1-0 up."